Which Race Series has the most stringent Roll Cage specs?
 

Like my title says I'm trying to find out which racing series or association has the tightest specifications for safety roll cages?

I'm in the beginning stages of my 1st Gen racecar I'm building and I want to make sure that the cage will meet any requirements of a race series or association that I may enter in.

Would it be NASA or SCCA or something different? (Not F1 or Rally or NASCAR either, duh.)

NASA's requirements generally mirror that of the SCCA. Both rulebooks are available for download. I suggest you get them and spend some quality time with them. After you determine what class you will compete in then you'll pretty much have the cage requirements laid out.

One other consideration to make is not so much who is more stringent in terms of the minimum requirements (bar diameter and thickness, minimum number of tubes) but also what are the allowances in terms of different cage designs for different classes. For instance, SCCA IT allows for 8 points of contact but you can't go through the firewall. SCCA Production (IIRC) allows for you to go through the firewall and tie into the front struts. SCCA IT use to not allow NASCAR bars on the passenger side door, now they do.

The old Spec-7 series (popular in the NE region) had a spec roll cage made by Autopower. You had to run that cage to play.

The bottom line is that your question is not specific enough to answer. You need to first identify which race series you are considering running in and then determine from these different specs a cage design that will meet them. There are some "precautions" you can take against future rules creep, like going +1 on the tubing size and using a very simple design. Watch out for rules about tying in suspension points and sizes of the plates you can use, as well as the use of gussets.

I'll let some of the real cage builders step in here now. ;)

-b

Pretty much handled it.

Only things I would add to it is:

Drag race classes have some messed up cage rules. If you are building a drag car, read the book rather than just building to SCCA specs.

The only thing I can see being more stringent than the SCCA specs would be FIA spec.

Once you decide the class in the SCCA then look for the class that mimics it in NASA. Check NASA rules for difference than SCCA specs.

Just about every sanctioned event out there will let you run a car that has a SCCA log book. So, build to the specs, get a SCCA log book, then a NASA log book.

-billy

Awesome thanks guys, I want to have a cage that will keep me safe to the max. I've got both the rule books for NASA and SCCA but haven't read far enough into them to figure out the differences in cages yet.

This won't be a drag car though. So thanks again! :)

Keep in mind that there are different sets of rules in SCCA for different classes. As mentioned above the "IT"(Improved Touring) has one level and GT or Production have others.

If you are looking at running a car with a modified engine besides removing smog stuff look at the GT rules set. They allow a lot more cage with unlimited mounting points and you can go through the firewall etc. IT limits you to 8 points and only up to the firewall.